Ralph Barbieri’s statement on his dismissal by KNBR

This evening, Barbieri called Brown with a statement. Brown passed along the statement to me to make sure we could get it on-line in its entirety.

Here it is:

—RALPH BARBIERI STATEMENT/

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(In the wake of his dismissal, longtime KNBR radio voice Ralph Barbieri dictated the following statement to the Mercury News:)

First of all, I want to say I was flattered and humbled by what Tom (Tolbert) said on the air today. I’ve never seen him even close to that emotional before and his words really touched me.

But now, cliche as though it may sound, all I can say is that I’m weighing my options, which are considerable.

I’ll have more to say later on. For now, I just want to say that I’ve seen a couple of articles that have characterized this as an amicable parting. Well, that’s not exactly the case.

I came to work (Tuesday) morning with no idea that anything of this nature was afoot, especially since my contract does not expire until Nov. 1.

I was immediately told that the general manager wanted to see me. I went to his office and the program director was there as well. I was told that I was being terminated and that today, April 10, was to be my last day at KNBR.

They presented me with about 100 pages of legal documents and told me to get back to them after I had read them.

Then, I was told to get my belongings and turn in my card key, after which I was ‘escorted’ out of the building by a KNBR management person.

When I got into my car, I tried to access about 20 voicemail messages, but I found out that somebody had cut out my access.

The whole process took about 7 minutes. Let’s see: 7 minutes for 28 years at KNBR. That’s four years a minute. I have to admit that’s pretty time efficient — not to mention classy.

That’s about all I can say. But after the dust clears, I’ll have more of an idea of what path I may pursue.

I don’t follow any of these shows on a regular basis, but have seen this all over the internet. Maybe I’m out of line in responding at all, but perhaps you folks should take a step back, look at the big picture, and think without emotions: what on earth would possess a giant conglomerate to unceremoniously fire a seasoned vet with such a strong following? I’m just guessing here, but something just smells funny to me. I wonder what Ralph Barbieri, who was known for “coloring over the lines” on air, was doing in person that lead to such an immediate and cold dismissal. My money’s on sexual harassment and KNBR’s management following HR’s demands to a T.

Ray

Knowing that Ralph’s contract was up later this year ( i knew it was 50-50 at best that he would be retained ). i was a bit shocked that after 28 years of service ( and number #1 on the 3-7 p.m drive home slot )he should have been treated with a bit more class and deserved to have a personal send-off for us devoted listeners…the “hundred page(s) of documents,read and get back to us ” comment from them is someting i want to eventually here…this move will seve the station at least 300K. i will miss him,contrary to most of the posts..i think Bob Fitzgerald is the most valuable ( knowledge wise ) that KNBR has…

BobB

Thank You Ralph! You gave me many years of pleasant diversions and sports talk. I’m one of those guys who were with you the whole time. So long, your voice began to grow on me. I respect your beliefs and opinions.
When Tommy joined you, the two of you became, to me, the most talented and human pair of sports broadcasters in the biz. I’ve listened to a lot of sports talk, all around the country, and recognized how lucky we were to have you. There are a lot of ways to get your sports these days. Most of us probably access them through radio, Internet, and tv news. But what I often needed on my way home from work was a variety of news, insight, and humor. And you provided that day in and day out. And without the irritating hipster attitude of Rome, and the rt wing politics of “Coward”. And the personality vacuum of many sports talk programs.
You seemed to get that sports is a mirror of our lives; the mythic tales of our shared
trials and triumphs played out everyday. Hope to hear you again soon.

walt

The morning guys need to be fired. They haven’t had a morning show since London and Cruz. That is why I now listen to 95.7 fm.

The Loose Cannon

Honestly, it sounds to me like there’s some sort of lawsuit against the station over Ralph with the way he described how his termination went. I’m sure more information will come out over the next few days.

I’ve been listening to Ralph and Tom since shortly after Tom joined Ralph…and while more times than not I found myself yelling at Ralph via the radio to let his guests finish answering questions before jumping down their throats with a new tangent. He did like the sound of his own voice way too much, and as someone else wrote – he held a grudge like no other.

But the fact that he lasted so long in such a major sports market in a “prime” time slot should be acknowledged, and I’m sure we haven’t heard his last “Go Sharks!”

ClimberDude

Ralph was a buffoon. He fancied himself an intellectual, and used a lot of SAT-test vocabulary words — incorrectly, much of the time. He liked to use “whom” instead of “who”, but didn’t seem to know the difference. His rambling self-answered questions were bizarre; I’m surprised the guests never told him to shut the f*** up.

I’m not saying he’s a bad person; at least he’s a liberal. But I was thoroughly sick of listening to him.

FeatherRiverDan

Later Ralph it was good while it lasted…Enjoy your son and don’t look back…..

wan8iv

he interrupted his bosses one too many times

sureshot

KNBR sure knows how to screw up HR, don’t they? Let’s see… they fire Kruger and then bring him back. They keep Fitz. They toss Ralph out of the building in seven minutes after 28 years of service.

I was never the biggest Barbieri fan, but it’s unconscionable that an employee of such stature and tenure could be cast aside so quickly. It must be unnerving for the morale of the current group to know that they could be tossed overboard in the blink of an eye too. Unless Ralph sexually abused a colleague or something of that nature, KNBR really screwed the pooch on this one.

JBoom

Shabby treatment, no doubt…but he’s had his day and at least now we’ll be spared having to listen to his verbose questions, verbal bullying and insecure whining.

TFLO

KNBR is lame…whether you liked him or not the way they treated the guy after 28 years was no class…Radnich show sucks..his sidekick is lame…
Fitzgerald and Brooks are a complete snooze in the afternoon…and Burns is absolutely brutal on air…

KNBR hasn’t been any good since Pete Franklin was doing his thing..

Silver’n’Smac

Look.. . . .. .it’s pretty simple:

Barbieri ripped the Raiders, and particularly the great late Al Davis, way too many times in the past few years.

His never-ending, personal attacks on the Raiders’ owner never ceased. He showed no capacity to actually talk about the Raider football team.

Raider fans almost completely stopped calling into KNBR in the past 5 years.

Why?

Because the brain-dead hosts, and in particular – Barbieri – couldn’t provide any actual football intellect. Their extent of Raider talk consisted of making jokes about Al Davis or verbally assaulting the man.

What Barbieri never seemed to realize is that despite some of Davis’ stubborn and sometimes ruthless football decisions, he had 10 times the heart Ralph had.

Al Davis performed more acts of generosity in his lifetime than Ralkph Barbieri’s angels, Steve Young & Brent Jones, can even dream of doing.

Al Davis paid for the late great Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas’ funeral. Let that sink in for a minute. . . . . .the hated rival Chiefs. Their own owner didn’t even do that. Al Davis stepped in and paid for the funeral of a player not even on his own team.

And all Ralph Barbieri could ever talk about is how Davis would throw down a towel for someone to shine his shoes.

I absolutely could not stand listening to the man anymore.

I respected his passion and rare willingness to ask the tough questions.

But as a Raider fan, and someone who wants to hear some objective talk about my team, Barbieri’s behavior over the years became unbearable.

For this reason alone, I stopped listening to KNBR a long time ago. The minute 95.7 the game came on the airwaves, I switched over. At least there’s some objective talk and equal dialogue about both football teams.

And every Raider fan I know has made the switch as well.

This has to have had an effect on KNBR’s ratings.

Maybe their dumb management finally realized some of the reasons behind their demise.

Next move: Get rid of that arrogant punk Fitzgerald. Brooks is cocky too. Radnich is full of himself. The only one on that entire station worth a damn, and with any sense of humility, is Tolbert & Murph & Mac.

With all that being said. . . .Cumulus is classless for the way they went about firing Barbieri – he deserved better than that.

That station will be off the airwaves in a couple of years max.

laotse

Will miss you, Ralph. You and Tommy were a great team. I wish the best for you and your son.

OldStaterFan

I couldn’t stand his political and personal anti-beef rants that he would spit out from time to time, but he is one of the best at interviewing. He would always ask the questions that the fans would want to ask.

Ralph was a rude person that always cut people off by. Raising his voice higher! Rude and the reason i stopped listening to knbr! Rick Barry too! Good bye and I hope you don’t go to the game!

Andre

Sorry to see Ralph go. Hope when he resurfaces he
gives us more of his sharp tongue opinion. Somehow
I think he lost himself with Tom Tolbert. Remember Ralph
and the Simpson case?! Wow!

Uncle Skunk

I’ve listened to Ralph for years and always appreciated his style. Maybe abrasive at times yet the man had style. At family get togethers and holidays my brother-in-law and sister would always mention Ralph in a positive light, absolutely appreciating his viewpoints and critiques. My sister in particular loved Ralph’s style. We all fall in the “marketable” age group and its a damn shame he was let go the way he was. Being a vegetarian, political leftist and a big Giants/49ers fan, I appreciated Ralph all the more. He was spot on most of the time. It was today that I finally got a chance to look up on the computer what had happened to Ralph (I thought he was on medical leave). He has been noticeably absent from the airwaves and hearing the Mr. T show should have been a tip off. Tommy and Ralph worked really well together and the fill in Byrnes (nothing against Eric) is piss poor to say the least. No chemistry like Ralph and Tom had. I’ve spent a lot of time at KNBR through busy work days and that 3-7PM shift really was entertaining. I am sad to see it go down the way it did. Obviously someone cannot accept criticism or even worse they pushed Ralph out because of his health condition. I am pissed about this lame move and realize Cumulus has the heart of a cadaver. Many others appreciate Ralph as I and my family have for all his years of entertainment and his devotion to ask the questions nobody else had the balls to ask. At least Larry Baer spoke up for Ralph and his years of SF Giant devotion. Apperantely, Tom did also, which I have yet to hear. Thank you again Ralph, you are a class act and I wish you and your son the best and hope to hear your distinct voice sometime soon in the not too distant future!

Tom

I am so excited that Ralph is no longer with KNBR. I couldn’t stand his voice (how did that ever get into radio??), how he was so kissy-kissy to his guests like Steve Young (as in, “say, Hi, to the wife and kids for me.”), how he sucked up to opposition coaches like Mike Shanahan (when he coached the hated Broncos!!!), how he kept talking about sports from his alma mater, UofSF (no one cares about UofSF. No one!!!) and his shockingly idiotic way of not mentioning who he was interviewing until the very end. Hey! Not every one hears the beginning of an interview. You have to let us know every 1 to 2 minutes of so!!! Isn’t that Radio 101??? The only time I ever listened to KNBR during 4 to 7pm was it was only Tom alone on the radio. He certainly can hold the show on his own. Otherwise, I would rather listen to 1140 and King fans whining about a new Sacramento arena. Then I started to listen to 95.7. I rather listen to NPR than Ralph Barieri. And why was he called The Razor??? He never laid into any of his guests on the show. I never heard him go off like Jim Rome or Charles Barkley. He was more like the Wet Blanket than a Razor. I never got that. But now that Ralph is gone I can go back and finally listen to KNBR after a two year hiatus. Ralph, good luck in your endeavors. I hope you either do something else or learn how to be better at your trade because you got lazy and it showed.

jesse.j

ive never listened to someone as negative and depressing as ralph..the older he got the more of a train wreck he became…constantly interupting people.snappin at folks..rambling on and on becoming angry at times to show he was right..if it wasent for tommy,ralph would never have had a chance..im so happy hes gone and if i hope i never here him on the radio again..stay retired…